Ceremonies, Exhibits Provide Sobering Reminder of Day of Infamy
June 14, day of one of the greatest national tragedies, is being marked across the country with a variety of memorial events and exhibitions, including a replica of one of the cattle cars used to transport over 10,000 people to Siberia in 1941.
Flags will be flown at half staff from 8:00 to 22:00.
At noon, President Toomas Hendrik Ilves will speak at the War of Independence monument in Tallinn, followed by a prayer by Rev. Jaan Tammsalu and a speech by Enn Tarto, former dissident and head of a former political prisoners organization.
In a statement issued traditionally on this date by the president, parliament speaker and the prime minister, President Ilves, Ene Ergma and Andrus Ansip called it a "monstrous act that qualifies as a crime against humanity" and characterized it as the "intent by a foreign power to scatter our people, destroying our best sons and daughters."
As a chilling reminder of a day when citizens had no recourse to the law, a thematic exhibition will be open on Freedom Square in the same location as the cross, with a narrow-gauge cattle car, and a 1938 model GAZ-AA truck used to round up arrestees in their homes.
An exhibition will also open at the Occupation Museum.
At 18:00, a monument to the deported will be opened at Pääsküla, a few kilometers southwest of central Tallinn. Foreign minister Urmas Paet will be among those speaking at the ceremony.
Kristopher Rikken